Senior Club Notes 3rd July, 2018.

NIGHT AT THE DOGS: A big thank you to everyone who supported our very successful ‘Night at the Dogs’ event at The Kingdom Greyhound Stadium last Saturday night. Check our Website for the winners of the various draws and for an array of beautiful photographs by Adrienne McLoughlin.

LUCKY FIRST GOAL: The winner of our ‘Lucky First Goal’ competition for last Saturday week’s Munster SF Final has still not come forward as we write. A reminder that the official winning time was 01.16 (1m, 16 sec) and if your ticket has that time then the €500 prize is yours. The card with this winning number must be presented by July 23rd (30 days) – otherwise the holders of Cards 01.15 and 01.17 will share the €500.

CLUB GYM: A new security system will be implemented at Austin Stacks Club Gym from July 14th 2018. All existing gym fobs will be defunct on that date. For important details re obtaining a new gym fob see www.austinstacks.ie.

SENIOR FOOTBALL: Milltown/Castlemaine 1-10; Austin Stacks 2-9.

Rarely have we ever got an easy game against Milltown/Castlemaine and this was certainly the case on last Sunday afternoon (1st July) in Milltown in this 8th round (of 11) of the Co. League. Early on in the game we felt we were going to be beaten out the gate – we had failed to register a score in the opening quarter while the home side had 1-3 on the board.

When we had a third wide in the 16th minute Greg Horan got the ball rolling when he won the kick-out, laid off quickly to Darragh O’Brien and with some help from Pa McCarthy Darragh was at the end of that slick move to put over our first score in the 17th minute. This was followed quickly by a Shane Carroll point.

Then team captain, Shane Guthrie, won the kick-out, found Pa McCarthy who linked with Greg Horan who burst his way through to land a fine goal. We were now just one point in arrears, and that was still the margin between the sides at half time when both teams scored two each in the closing ten minutes of the half – our two coming from a Darragh O’Brien free after a foul on Greg Horan and the final score of the half from a Pa McCarthy beauty that sailed high between the posts from distance (Milltown ahead at half time by 1-5 to 1-4).

Almost six minutes had elapsed after the resumption before the first score came. And it came from a Darragh O’Brien free (after Jack O’Shea had been fouled for the umpteenth time) to level the match for the first time. Then, two minutes later, we took the lead for the first time when Darragh’s brother, Ferdia, put over a beauty from play. But two quick points from the opposition put them back in the lead on the 40th minute. Two minutes later a lovely Stacks move saw Shane O’Callaghan put Jack O’Shea through for another equalizing point. And this was followed, in the 45th minute, by our second goal. It came after another good build up which ended with centre-back, Ciarán O’Reilly, in the right spot to tap a Darragh O’Brien cross to the net and put us three points clear.

But Milltown never gave in and after holding us scoreless in the first quarter they repeated that feat in the last quarter, wiping out our lead during this period by scoring three more points (two from frees). This left the sides level for the 4th time as the game entered added time (1-10 to 2-7). And during the six minutes of this additional time we regrouped and added two more points – both from Darragh O’Brien – to secure a well-deserved, hard-earned victory.

And what made the victory more relevant was the fact that the two teams (Desmonds and Na Gaeil) that were level with us on top of the Div 2 League Table suffered defeats in their respectivegames, which now leaves us clear on top of the Table with 14 points, one ahead of Kilcummin, with Desmonds and Na Gaeil sharing third spot on 12 points each. And the irony of all this is we must face Na Gaeil (w/e 29th July ) and Desmonds (w/e 19th August) in the last two rounds of the League (these, of course, are provisional dates).

FOOTNOTE: There was a beautiful tribute in the Matchday Programme by the Milltown Club to one of their former players, Michael Dennehy who died at the relatively young age of 54 early last week. Mike was one of the great Club players of the late 1980s and all through the nineties. He brought his Club from Division 3 in 1988 straight to Division 1 for the 1990 season. And Mike was on the Milltown team when we played them in the League for the very first time on that Easter Saturday evening (14th April 1990).

How poignant it was then when last Sunday’s game got underway that Mike’s son, Donal was lining out at centrefield. He won the throw-in and raced up field to score the opening point of the game after just 14 seconds. And you see from his demeanor that it meant everything to him.

A Minutes Silence was observed just before the game started last Sunday in memory of Michael. All in the Stacks Club extend sincere sympathy to Michael’s family, friends and to all his colleagues in the Milltown/Castlemaine Club.

HURLING: After that good win against St. Pats (East Kerry) in the opening round of the South Kerry League (8-20 to 1-6) we are due to travel to Duagh on this Wednesday evening (4th July) for a round two game of this four round League.

MINOR FOOTBALL: Laune Rangers 6-9 (27); Austin Stacks 3-12 (21).

Our Minors have to go back 32 games – back to April 2016 – to put up a similar score and not to win the game. Conceding four goals in the first half and two more in the second half put paid to any chances of winning our opening round game of Group 4 of this season’s new format Co. Championship played in extreme warm conditions in Killorglin on this Tuesday evening (26th June). We lead on four different occasions – the last time four minutes into the second half. But when Rangers scored their fifth goal in the 38th minute they never lost the lead again and went on to close out the game with a six points winning margin at the end.

No fault could be attributed to any one individual, certainly not Ben Quilter in goals, for any of the Laune Rangers goals. It was just one of those occasions which no doubt our Management team will have analyzed and rectified for our next encounter.

We were just two points in arrears at half time (4-2 to 2-6). Daniel O’Rourke, who had another brilliant game, scored our two goals with five different players scoring our six points – Michael Slattery (2) and one each from Adam Curran, Michael O’Gara, Seán Quilter (free) and Gearóid Fitzgerald.

In the second half the Killorglin boys outscored us again by 2-7 to 1-6. Our goal came four minutes are the resumption from Michael Slattery and our six points came from also from Slatts and Conor Myers with two each and one each from Donagh McMahon and Seán Quilter.

So we now prepare for our second and final round robin game at home to Feale Rangers on this Tuesday evening (3rd July) – a game which we must win if we have any chance of going through to the knock-out quarter final stage. Throw-in at 7pm.

JOB MATCH: is back for 2018 – Summer, Part Time & Full Time Employment Opportunities. With huge success for the last 3 years we are now taking CV’s for Summer, part time and full time employment or a change of employment. Please consider this golden opportunity where you will receive all the tools to update your CV and direct help with interview techniques from the Jobmatch Mentors. Feedback from employers continues to be very positive. Please email jobmatch@austinstacks.ie

CLUBHOUSE: As always the Clubhouse is available for all types of Parties and Functions. Enquiries about Club Bookings should be made by contacting Harry Hynes at 087 2467286.

CARDS: The 45 Card Sessions continue in the Clubhouse on every Monday and Thursday nights, commencing at 9.30pm each night.